Chinese vertical dramas made for phone viewing show the future of mobile video

On that note, mobile video producers should direct their attention to a format Chinese media companies have been experimenting with: the vertical drama (竖屏剧; shùpíngjù). Vertical dramas are what Chinese producers call their scripted content made especially for vertical mobile play. Popular video apps like Douyin (TikTok’s Chinese version) and Kuaishou have begun curating professionally produced, scripted narrative content too.What’s remarkable about vertical drama is that it’s not just any scripted content cropped for a vertical aspect ratio. In the battle for mobile audience‘s fragmented attention, longform content can’t compete: this is the Popcorn League (Note that as the vertical format requires you hold the phone with one hand, it’s taking one hand away from the actual popcorn, thus even winning half of THAT fight).The great majority of vertical dramas released so far have a comedic dimension. This doesn’t mean the vertical mobile format is only fit for comedies, but rather that when Chinese producers ideated their vertical dramas, the medium‘s innate rhythm was accounted for. It is this surreal distinction of the small mobile display from its real world surroundings that allows viewers to accept its supernatural visual language: faster, denser, and more information-rich than the real world can offer.It’s important to note these elements are not particular to a Chinese context, but rather they’re particular to the vertical mobile format.